


Much ado about Skye's big mouth

by EmmaWasRight



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-19 16:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3617196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaWasRight/pseuds/EmmaWasRight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. AU </p>
<p>Jemma and Skye are roommates. One day Skye tells an innocent, little, barely even worth mentioning, white lie about Jemma's current relationship status and somehow all hell breaks loose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Jemma contemplates murder

**Chapter 1**

**_In Which Jemma Contemplates Murder_ **

Jemma Simmons was going to have to ask for a raise. It was the only way she would be able to afford her apartment after she killed her roommate Skye. She supposed her extra income could also go towards legal fees if she was ever caught, but Jemma liked to think that she was too smart to leave any evidence.

“Skye I cannot believe that you just did that! Do you have any idea how much of a disaster this is going to be?” Jemma moaned, putting her face in her hands.

“What? I just helped you. Your mom was getting all up in your business about you being single, I just lied a little. She’ll never find out, she’s across the Atlantic.” Skye defended herself while preparing her breakfast.

“She’ll be here next week.” Jemma said through gritted teeth. “You only caught the end of the conversation, the first half was about all the troubles my mother had booking her flight and finding an ‘adequate’ hotel.”

“Oh.” Skye said

“Yes Oh. And you’ve now promised her that I am in a relationship with someone and that it was rather serious.” Jemma cringed when she thought of it.

“You could always just tell her the truth, that you are single. Or you could say that I hadn’t had any caffeine and wasn’t fully awake when I made that comment.” Skye offered

“The time for that would have been after you dropped your bombshell. Now my mother has had time to think about it, to plan my wedding, to decide on the font for the invitations. I’ll bet you she’s already contacted the newspaper about the wedding announcement.” Jemma’s voice was very near cracking

“Well I don’t really see another way out of this for you. She’s going to find out when she gets here and there is no man warming your bed.” Skye tried in her best snob-English accent

“Fine. Yes, I will tell her the truth. She’ll blame me and I will be treated to another list of ‘things Jemma can do to land a man and make me a grandmother’ but I will sit down, grin and bear it because I know that she will be going back home to father in two weeks.” Jemma resolved, regretting her morning idea to Skype with her mother.

“Atta-girl” Skye said enthusiastically, no harm, no foul she thought.

“But Skye, please promise me one thing?” Jemma pleaded

“Sure, what’ll it be?” Skye was willing to do almost anything to fix this minor, little, itsy-bitsy mistake.

“Please never lie to my mother again.” Jemma deadpanned

Skye laughed and replied “Cross my heart”

* * *

D-day had arrived and Jemma was at the airport to pick up her mother.

“Hello mum. It’s…” she started.

“Your father and I are getting a divorce!” The ever elegant Julia Simmons thrust her luggage towards her daughter and continued “he’s been an absolute bore since he’s retired and I can’t take it anymore.”

Jemma was flabbergasted, this wasn’t typical behaviour from her mother. Usually she was very calm and had the stiff upper lip act down pat. This loud reaction had to be indicative of a very serious situation.

“You’re getting a divorce!? But you and Daddy have been together for 34 years.” What on earth could have happened Jemma thought.

“Yes I know dear, retirement has changed our dynamic. But I can’t think about that anymore it depresses me, the only thing that has kept me going is the thought of meeting your beau. Now where is he? I’m sure he didn’t let you pick me up all by yourself.”

As her mother scanned the crowd looking for someone she had never met Jemma panicked and had an out of body experience as she heard the following words come out of her mouth: “I’m sorry Mum, he isn’t here, he had an all-day board meeting today and couldn’t get out of it.”

Bugger, now she had to go through with this charade and she had no idea how to go about it. Jemma couldn’t lie, at least not long term. There was no help for it, she was going to have to enlist Skye to help.

“Mum I just have to go to the washroom, I’ll be right back.” Jemma tried not to stammer, luckily her mother seemed too preoccupied to notice that something was amiss.

“Hmm? Alright dear, I’ll be in that little convenience store over there” her mother said, pointing to the overpriced gift shop near the exit.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, Jemma thought as she dialed Skye’s number, praying Skye would actually answer.

“Hello?”

“Oh Skye! Thank God! I …”

“Ha-ha got you! Leave a message peasants.”

That’s it. Jemma was doomed, there was no way she could fool her mum for two weeks. She was going to have to tell her mother the truth, break her heart and send her to a nervous breakdown.


	2. In which Skye (sorta) saves the day

**Chapter 2**

**_In Which Skye (Sorta) Saves the Day_ **

Jemma was in a panic. Skye wasn’t answering any calls or responding to texts or any other form of communication. Jemma had been in the washroom too long and was sure that any minute now her mother would walk in and start asking rather personal questions and recommending a healthy dose of cranberry juice to clear everything up. Jemma had to come up with a plan. Something that would not let her mother get worried and give her time to think of a way to con her mother into believing that she was in a happy, loving relationship. Step one was to leave the washroom.

She nearly bowled her mother over as she exited, she had been right about the timing.

“Jemma dear! I was starting to worry about you. Is everything okay? Listen I know you’ve been spending a lot of time with your boyfriend – whose name I don’t know by the way – but you really must make sure that you are taking care of yourself. To use a vulgar turn of phrase; he might go looking for greener pastures if you have to shut down the downtown for a few days.”

Jemma knew that it was scientifically impossible to die of embarrassment but she was sure that she was about to disprove that theory.

“Mother, I am alright. I just wanted a bit of privacy to call … Leo.” Great, she’s now given the fantasy man a name. What on earth was wrong with her? She was supposed to be getting out of this mess, not adding on to it.

“How nice. Leo is it? Funny how you’ve never mentioned him before.”

This was it. This was Jemma’s chance to end it all and fess up. She had to seize the moment, she had to.. “I didn’t want to jinx anything by telling you prematurely mother.” Well so much for fessing up. “Why don’t I drive you to your hotel so you can freshen up? I’ll pick you up for supper, I know this perfect little bistro you’ll love.” Jemma hustled her mother towards the car, the sooner she could drop her off and get away from her before she lied again, the better. When had she gotten so good at lying?

* * *

 

Jemma schlumped through the door of the apartment, dropped everything in the hall, walked to the living room and face planted on to the futon. It took all her energy to lift her head up. “Skye where are you? You had better be maimed, dead or worse!”

Skye casually stepped out of her bedroom. She had been reading fanfiction on her laptop all day and had zero regrets. “You rang, oh loud one?”

“Yes I rang. I called you several times, texted you, snapchatted you, I practically sent up smoke signals trying to get a hold of you earlier.” Jemma rolled onto her back, attempted to blow the hair out of her face and tried to muster up the strength to stand up. She needed alcohol, which was kept in the kitchen.

“What was so urgent? Is your mom okay?” Skye followed Jemma into the kitchen, saw her reach for the wineglasses and knew something was terribly wrong. For one; Jemma didn’t drink that often and for two; it was just after noon. “Jemma you’re scaring me now. What’s up?”

“MymumwantstodivorcemydadandIdidn’ttellherthetruthaboutbeingsingleandinfactImadeitworse” Jemma said in one quick breath.

“O-kay. My Jemma-speak to English translator is not working right now so you are going to have to repeat that. Slowly. While breathing.”

“My mum wants to divorce my dad!” Jemma started with a deep sigh “She says the dynamic has changed since he’s retired and she can’t take it anymore. She also said that the only thing that kept her going was the idea of meeting my boyfriend.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes ‘Oh no’. Because instead of setting the record straight, I lied to my mum. I lied Skye. Convincingly.”

“Must be a pretty bad situation then.”

“Oh it gets worse. I said that he was in an all-day board meeting and couldn’t get out of it. I gave him a name. I said I called him from the washroom for a bit of privacy, when in fact I was trying to get a hold of you. I was in there so long my mother all but asked me if I had a UTI from having too much sex with my boyfriend. WHO DOESN’T EXIST!!!” and with that Jemma finished her glass, grabbed the bottle, returned to the living room and sat down on the loveseat.

“What am I going to do Skye? I can’t tell my mother the truth, she’ll be devastated. She also won’t believe if he cancels all his plans with us. I can’t magically create a man out of thin air. If I could do that I’d be rich beyond my wildest dreams and quite frankly would have killed you long ago.” Jemma attempted to joke.

“Glad to know that my rent contribution is the only thing keeping me alive” Skye laughed “What did you name mystery boy?”

“Leo”

“And does this ‘Leo’ have a last name?” Skye was genuinely curious about the inner workings of her friend’s mind.

“No Skye, I didn’t think to make up a pretend last name for my pretend boyfriend. Next time I will strive to do better.” Jemma said bitterly

“Hey no need to be snarky with me. I told you to tell your mother the truth. You’re the one who just piled on the lies. Luckily I am an experienced liar and have come up with the perfect solution to get you out of this without ruining your relationship with your mother.”

“Really? How?” Jemma was so very hopeful. She loved Skye and her devious little mind.

“My brother Grant” Skye sat down with a self-satisfied smile, as though she had created world peace.

“I’m sorry Skye I don’t understand. Are you thinking I should pretend to date your brother? Because that wouldn’t work. My mother has seen him before, she knows who he is. Most importantly she knows his name.”

Damn, thought Skye, on to plan B. “I knew that. Of course I didn’t mean you should pretend to date my brother “, yes she did, “I mean I’m sure my brother’s friend Fitz could pretend to be your boyfriend.”

“Fitz?” Jemma said hesitantly, she thought she had met him before, but she wasn’t sure.

“Yeah Fitz, and in fact now that I think about it, his first name is actually Leo. Jemma its fate!” Skye practically bounced out of her seat with excitement.

And with that Jemma finished her second glass of wine and decided to take a nap before she got into any more trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normally I wouldn't post so much so quickly, but it would seem that the muse has smiled upon me today. And who am I to refuse a muse. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and if you want to chat, or send me a prompt I'm EmmaWasRight on tumblr.


	3. In which Skye has some explaining to do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short little chapter. A mini chapter if you will.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 3**

_**In Which Skye Has Some Explaining To Do** _

“Skye what the hell are you doing? Why do you want me to ask Fitz to pretend to be Jemma’s boyfriend? You aren’t making any sense.” After all these years he was used to Skye’s crazy schemes. This plan though, it took the cake.

“I don’t know what you aren’t getting Grant, Jemma needs a fake boyfriend and we thought Fitz could do it.” Grant was being particularly thick-headed today Skye thought. She wasn’t a fan of asking her brother for favours, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“I don’t really know your roommate that well Skye, but I’m pretty sure that this plan was your brainchild.”

“Yes, it was my idea! But she’s going along with it okay? Look, I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t really important.” Skye hated grovelling, Jemma owed her so much for this.

Grant sighed and shook his head. Jemma had had a calming influence on Skye, but his little sister was still a hell-raiser. “Okay, I’ll ask Fitz but I can’t guarantee anything. And you’re going to have to give a good reason, he won’t do anything like this just because I ask.”

“Fine, Jemma just needs to get her crazy mom off her back. A boyfriend will do the trick, all he has to do is pretend for a few days and make nice with her mother. That’s it, that’s all.”

Grant massaged between his eyebrows, this conversation was giving him a headache. “I still don’t understand why it has to be a fake boyfriend. That seems ridiculous.” And as he said it, he knew. Somehow this was all Skye’s fault.

“Do you really need the why Grant? I’m just trying to help a friend out of a jam. Can’t a girl ask her brother to ask his friend if he can pretend to be her roommate’s boyfriend?” Skye tried to shrug off the accusatory look her big brother was giving her. She could tell Grant wasn’t buying her innocent act. “Look it’s my fault, I’m trying to fix it. If you do this I will get Jemma to make you those cookies you love.”

“The chocolate chip ones that are manna from heaven?” Grant salivated. When Skye nodded Grant put out his hand to shake on it. “Deal.” What could he say? Those were really good cookies.


	4. In which Grant asks a favour

**Chapter 4**

**_In Which Grant Asks for a Favour_ **

“I’ll do it” Fitz answered before Grant could take a breath.

Maybe Fitz didn’t hadn’t thought this through, Grant decided to give him another out. “Fitz, I don’t need an answer right now. You need to think about it”

“No I don’t. I’ll do it. Your friend needs help, it’s nothing too hard. I’ll help.” Fitz answered chipperly.

“She’s not my friend she’s my sister’s friend.” Grant groused.

“Same difference. I really don’t mind.” Fitz went about his work in the Lab.

Grant wasn’t sure about what Fitz did exactly, but he did know his friend was a genius. “Okay, what’s your angle Leo? This is just too easy.”

“Who says I have to have an angle. I am a fine upstanding man I’ll have you know.” Fitz replied in a faux haughty tone.

Grant raised his eyebrow

“And if I happen to have caught a glance of her before and figure that this is the perfect way to meet her, so be it.” Fitz admitted.

Grant laughed “So this isn’t some great chivalrous, completely altruistic deed you’re doing?”

“Oh it’s completely chivalrous, I just don’t think it would hurt my chances with her if I start off showing her my best side.” Leo grinned cheekily.

Grant kept laughing with his friend and texted Skye that Leo was in.

* * *

Skye giggled as she read her phone and yelled out to Jemma, who was stress baking in the kitchen “Boy do you owe me Jemma. I expect two batches of chocolate chip cookies for this.”

Jemma rushed to the living room, flour in her hair and on her cheek.

“He said yes?” Jemma asked breathlessly.

“Yup. Apparently he is a gentleman and a scholar.” And he has a mega crush on you Skye thought, but she decided that she was going to let this one play out.

“Oh that’s so nice of him. I can’t believe he agreed to do it. Can you give me his contact info? I want to thank him properly.” Jemma couldn’t believe her luck, she had great friends to help her get out of this bind. Although to be fair, if she didn’t have this same friend she wouldn’t be in this bind. Jemma chose to ignore that fact for her own mental health.

“Sure, here you go” Skye sent Jemma the contact information. “You guys should probably meet up first and come up with a background story.”

“That’s a wonderful idea Skye, I’ll give him a call right now. Maybe we can grab breakfast tomorrow morning.” Jemma was already planning a backstory in her mind and hoped Fitz had a memory for details.

“You know that that mystical box in your hands allows you to write messages that will be instantly seen by them on their own mystical box? Some people find it more effective and modern.” Skye snarked.

“Skye I don’t think texting will completely convey how grateful I am. Besides, I want to hear what he sounds like so I can describe it to my mother.”

“Oooh smart, creating a databank of Leo tidbit for mom. I approve.” Skye nodded

“Well now that I have your approval I can rest easy. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to the kitchen to take the cookies out of the oven and to call Leo. Would I be correct in assuming you would like some cookies when they are ready?” Jemma headed out of the living room

“Yes please.” Skye said, suddenly all sweetness.

“Mmm-hmm” Jemma hummed.

“And if you want to make another batch for my brother that would be good. I kinda promised him some in exchange for him asking Fitz for the favour.” Skye called out after Jemma.

“It’s a good thing I’ve already made 3 batches. He can have one of those. Just lie and say that I made it just for him.” Jemma called back.

“Jemma how sneaky. I like it” Skye grinned

“I learnt from the best.” Jemma sassed

“Love you too!” Skye yelled back.

There were still a few minutes to go for the cookies so Jemma stuck her courage to the sticking point and called Leo.

“Hello?” a voice with a Scottish brogue answered. This Jemma was not expecting. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but that wasn’t it.

“Hello, is this Leo Fitz?” Jemma asked tentatively

“Jemma?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect! It’s great to hear from you.” Fitz sounded really excited, maybe this won’t be that bad Jemma thought.

“I just wanted to call and thank you for agreeing to do this and to invite you for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“Sure, I can be at your place at let’s say 10? I’ll get your address from Grant. Listen Jemma, I hate to cut this short but the Lab alarms have just gone off, I think the monkey is trying to escape I have to go.”

And with that the line went silent. 

"Skye we need to clean the apartment!" Jemma yelled. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was a little late in coming. The last few weeks have been a little crazy at work. 
> 
> As always I'm EmmaWasRight on Tumblr if you want to chat or send me prompts. 
> 
> Happy reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This was only supposed to be a one shot ficlet, but the plot bunnies took hold, and well here we are. I have next few chapters cogitating in my mind and will post them as soon as I can.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
